Arizona’s attorney general has sued a Saudi-owned farm operating a massive hay operation in the middle of the Arizona desert, alleging that the business is hastening the loss of the rural community’s rapidly depleting groundwater supply.

The farm owned by Fondomonte uses billions of gallons of groundwater in La Paz County each year to irrigate the desert to grow hay, which it then ships back to the Middle East to feed dairy cows.

The Saudi-owned operation first came to light in a 2015 investigation by the Center for Investigative Reporting and quickly sparked outrage in the state, spurring national and even international media coverage.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes told CIR last year that she was considering suing to stop the damage. On Wednesday, she announced the public nuisance lawsuit. It asks a judge to stop Fondomonte from excessive pumping and require the company to establish an abatement fund, which would cover damages incurred by neighbors such as their wells going dry or their water quality worsening as the groundwater is depleted.

“Arizona law is clear: no company has the right to endanger an entire community’s health and safety for its own gain,” Mayes said in a statement.

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In the mid-1990s, Saudi Arabia was the world’s sixth largest exporter of wheat. But as their groundwater was drained down, the government told companies to go overseas in search of new water supplies.

“Fondomonte came to Arizona to extract water at an unreasonable and excessive rate because doing so was banned in its home country – another arid desert with limited water,” the lawsuit alleges. “Fondomonte is taking advantage of Arizona’s failure to protect its precious groundwater resource.”

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